This file photo shows a young farmer introducing his products during the Y-Farm Expo 2023 in Seoul on April 21, 2023. The Y-Farm Expo is an annual exposition aimed at helping urban dwellers seek new opportunities in the farming business and resettle in rural regions hosted by Yonhap News Agency and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of households that moved from urban areas to farming and fishing villages logged a marked decrease in 2022 following two years of on-year growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday.
The number of households moving to farming villages came to 318,769 in 2022, down 12.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The number of households that opted to resettle in farming towns to farm fell 13.5 percent on-year to 12,411 last year.
A total of 951 households relocated to fishing villages last year, which also fell 16.2 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
The number of people who moved to rural areas combined also fell around 15 percent on-year to 435,022 last year.
The country had seen a surge in the number of such households over the past two years amid the prolonged pandemic and soaring housing prices, but the number went down in line with a recovery in the service sector, according to officials.
Some 75.3 percent of households that relocated to farming villages to farm were single-family households, and the average age of such householders came to 56.4.
Among those who moved to rural areas but did not engage in farming, 42.2 percent were in their 20s and 30s, and the average age of the householders came to 45.7, the data showed.
(Yonhap)
